A Comparative Study of Prevalence of Myopia between Urban and Rural School Children of Cape Coast, Ghana

Abstract

Environmental exposure has been recognized as a major risk factor for myopia. The prevalence of myopia and its probable risk factors in school children who are exposed to widely contrasting educational and environmental conditions in Ghana was undertaken involving three hundred and ninety eight (398) schoolchildren aged 6 to 17 years (mean + SD; 10.6 + 2.3) randomly selected from urban and rural schools cape Coast, Central region of Ghana. pretinoscopy under cyclopedia, and subjective refraction were undertaken, information on number of hours per week on near visual work activities was collected via a questionnaires. Results: showed marked differences in the prevalence of myopia in the two groups and higher (p = 0.0032) in the urban (13.4%) than rural (4.4%) schoolchildren. Furthermore, children who had 4 or more hours per week of near visual work classes outside normal school hours had a higher rate of myopia. It is concluded environmental that factors may be associated with the difference in the prevalence of myopia between the urban and rural schoolchildren.

Keywords: myopia, urban, rural Prevalence near visual work.